7 great things to do in Cape Town this weekend

Our pick of seven of the best events and things to do in Cape Town this weekend from Friday, 17 May to Sunday, 19 May 2013.

Pick any weekend of the year in Cape Town and you’re bound to find a host of events planned through our hip and happening city. This Friday-to-Sunday, don’t let the cold weather and impending icy chills dampen your spirits, there’s plenty to do that will warm you from the inside out. For starters, a swanky black tie  charity affair poised to give you the fuzzies takes over Cape Town City Hall, and,  if the thought of curling up with a good book gets you hot, there’s a literary festival in Franschhoek where you can stock up for the winter. Alternatively, if music is more your thing, some proudly South African performers will be heating up stages across our seaside metropolis. If that doesn’t fire you up, a life-or-death soccer game with the Urban Warriors will surely get the blood pumping, but then, so could a chocolate-themed lunch with a celebrity chef. See, winter doesn’t have to be all gloom and doom - Cape Town has you covered. 

Nightlife Pick of the Weekend:  5 for Change Charity Fundraiser
Dress up and have fun for not just one, but five good causes at the 5 for Change charity fundraiser on Saturday at the Cape Town City Hall. The Mother City-based social initiative was founded by Ross McKernan, David Deetlefs and Adriaan Dippenaar to create a platform for young business people and entrepreneurs to give back to their immediate communities while also having a good time doing so. The black tie affair is a fun night of drinks and great giveaways, and this year’s event will be hosted by funnyman Nik Rabinowitz and will feature live entertainment from Goldfish and The Rudimentals. The five charities, which were chosen based on their unique techniques for initiating change, will receive the profits and donations from the glam party. This year the beneficiaries are Waves for Change, Ilizwi Photography Club, Iyeza Express, TrashBack and See-Saw-Do. Tickets for 5 for Change are available via Quicket.co.za and cost R300p/p, which includes drinks and canapés. The event starts at 7pm.

2. Franschhoek Literary Festival
Spend the weekend away in a world of books at the seventh annual Franschhoek Literary Festival from Friday to Sunday.  For three days, the Cape Winelands town becomes a word-centric hub for writers, readers and publishers, and visitors can get their fill of book and poetry readings, famed authors, topical talks and debates, aspiring writer workshops and, of course, piles and piles of books for both the young and old. Novelists, like Alexander McCall Smith of the “No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” series, will be sharing the tricks and tips that informed their master works, while non-fiction writers will tackle the more debate-worthy, thought-provoking issues that inspired their writing. The festival also features evening events, like a dinner or concert, for those interested in more intimate interactions, and this year, there’s also an Open Morning for schools where young book-lovers can meet their favourite authors and learn a thing or two at insightful talks. Tickets for individual events at the Franschhoek Literary Festival are available via Webtickets.co.za and cost R60p/p, unless otherwise indicated on the programme. Participants can buy 10 tickets and get 1 free, and a limited amount of student tickets are available at a cost of R20p/p.

3. Ajax Cape Town vs Golden Arrows Soccer Match
It’s coming down to the wire for Ajax Cape Town. They need a win from their Saturday match – it’s the last of the season - against Durban’s Golden Arrows at Athlone Stadium to successfully stave off relegation. Though a recent tie against Maritzburg United has put them a good few points clear of the danger zone, where Chippa United and Black Leopards currently sit, the Mother City side still stands a chance of being demoted if they lose and the other two teams emerge victorious. The Lamontville Golden Arrows are only one spot ahead of the Urban Warriors on the PSL log, making Saturday’s game a fairly evenly matched battle; although, Ajax is bound to bring the heat as they’ll be playing for their lives. Tickets for the game are available via Computicket.com and at Computicket outlets, and cost R60p/p for seats in the yellow zone and R40p/p for those in the red zone. Kick-off is scheduled for 3pm.

4. Chocolat Luncheon and Book Launch with Eric Lanlard
Chocolate lovers, eat your hearts out! French pâtissier and BBC Lifestyle’s ‘Baking Mad’ celebrity chef, Eric Lanlard, is set to woo and wow food lovers with treats from his latest book, “Chocolat”,  at a luncheon at Simonsig estate’s signature restaurant, Cuvée, in Stellenbosch on Sunday. Together with the wine estate’s head chef, Lucas Carstens, Lanlard has created a cocoa-inspired menu that starts with carrot risotto and crisps with blue cheese smothered in a white chocolate sauce and ends with a decadent dessert straight from his mouth-watering new release. Signed copies of the chocolatier’s recipe book will be available, so guests can make the sinfully sweet treats in their own kitchen too. Tickets for lunch with Eric Lanlard cost R290p/p. To book, contact Anmarie de Wet at Cuvée restaurant on +27 (0) 21 888 4932 or send an email to cuvee@simonsig.co.za. Guests should arrive at 12pm for 12:30pm, and “Chocolat” will be available for a special price of R190p/p.

5. Arno Carstens and Francois Van Coke Concert
Two of Cape Town’s most legendary front men, Arno Carstens and Francois Van Coke, are making a stop at Die Boer dinner theatre in Durbanville on Friday and Saturday as part of their three-city mini unplugged tour. The evenings of stripped down rock include acoustic versions of hits from the Springbok Nude Girls and Carstens’s solo work, as well as Afrikaans punk from Van Coke’s musical projects Fokofpolisiekar and Van Coke Kartel.  Both artists are world-class performers with multiple South African Music Awards and legions of fans behind them, and thus unsurprisingly, tickets for both performances are already sold out. Those who haven’t been lucky enough to confirm can put their name on the waiting list by calling +27 (0) 21 979 1911 or emailing navrae@dieboer.com. And those who have already booked should keep in mind that the doors open at 6:30pm, dinner orders must be in by 7:30pm and the show starts at 8:30pm.  

6. Hip Hop Kaslam Presents Uthando
The Mother City’s dopest emcees will be dropping beats and rhymes at Hip Hop Kaslam presents Uthando, a love-themed Spaza music showcase, on Saturday at the Baxter Theatre in Rondebosch. Spaza is a celebration of local hip-hop style and gives rappers a chance to spit game about life in ekasi (the township) in their mother tongue – be it isiXhosa or isiZulu or a combination of both - with English and slang mixed in for good measure. The top three acts for Saturday’s jam are Aylo, Pozi and Sound Fusion, all of which were chosen by fans, and the goal of the gig is to show Mzansi’s talented musos that they don’t have to stick to American hip hop culture to be successful: rapping in an African indigenous language can help artists connect with local listeners on a more personal level. Tickets for Hip Hop Kaslam presents Uthando are available via Computicket.com and Computicket outlets for R40p/p. The show starts at 6pm.

7. Santa’s Story at the Fugard Theatre
Multi-talented opera singer Aviva Pelham brings the story of her mother’s Holocaust survival to life with the one-woman show “Santa’s Story” at the Fugard Theatre; performances are scheduled this weekend, from Friday to Sunday. The production of ninety-four-year-old Santa Pelham’s moving on-stage autobiography is an evocative mix of storytelling and live music that travels through multiple genres and languages to mark a journey to freedom.  Aviva, who is a seasoned performer of operettas, like “My Fair Lady” and the “Sound of Music”, uses song to take the audience from Nazi-oppressed Germany through to the former country of Rhodesia (via Spain and France) in a way that conjures up a sense of culture and space and communicates feelings of tenacity and hope. Tickets for “Santa’s Story” are available either via Computicket.com and Computicket outlets or at the Fugard Theatre Box Office; they cost R150p/p. Discounts apply for pensioners and registered Friends of the Fugard. Shows on Friday and Saturday start at 8pm, and there’s also a Saturday show at 4pm. Sunday’s show starts at 3pm.

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Help nature and have fun all in one go at the second weekend of the Greenpop Reforest Fest, a three-day tree-planting jol for friends.

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